Arsenal Got Sol Arsenal 2 Everton 0

Flag
By Boris Mellor
October 1 2005

Sol couldn’t have chosen an easier match to make his Premiership return, as the opposition didn’t quite turn up. Even at 2-0 down they had 10 men behind the ball, meanwhile Arsenal treated it as a practice match. Rightly so, as we have two big games to play in the next 8 days.

Neville managed to kick Pires off the pitch but didn’t get booked for it. Meanwhile later on Reyes gave Neville a good kick and did get booked. But he looked like he thought it was well worth it. Neville was finally booked for an attempted, but failed hack at van Persie.

 

Actually Everton was undone by their main tactic of kicking Arsenal off the pitch, conceding far too many free kicks led to the Campbell brace from slide rule Reyes deliveries.

 

Arsenal played a strange mix of the passing game plus on me head football for free kicks. Perhaps Campbell had reminded them he was a centre forward in a previous life.

 

Moyes started off with Plan B, and at two nil down saw no need to change it. Even when he brought Drunk and Disorderly on it was to replace the only attacker. Arsenal had lots of chances with many hitting the post or cross bar. They also played quite wide with Ljungberg using the wing, and Cole playing out on the left. The only problem with that is that Freddy did not get too many scoring chances. Reyes was excellent throughout – no doubt his scoring boots will return in the near future.

 

The score not as high as last year, but Arsenal were always in control and know the next two matches will require far more effort.  A solid and entertaining performance, but no real test against a team that, at the present, looks favourite for relegation.